NcDeuce
02-03-2004, 09:17 AM
Discovery of Deadly Ricin Closes Senate Buildings
WASHINGTON (*******) - A suspicious white powder found in a Senate office building on Monday tested positive for the deadly poison ricin, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrence Gainer said.
Several preliminary tests confirmed that the substance discovered in a mail handling room was ricin and results of more extensive tests conducted in a laboratory confirmed the earlier findings, Gainer said late on Monday.
"Two of those three tests do indicate that it is ricin. So we have had several confirmations that it is ricin," Gainer said.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a physician, joined Gainer at the news conference and stressed that no one had been injured.
"There is no cause for alarm," Frist said.
He said that the powder that was found could theoretically have been inhaled but there was no evidence of that by any of the people who had been in the office or on the floor where the substance was found.
FINANCIAL RIPPLES
The discovery caused ripples on world financial markets, with the euro gaining overnight against the dollar after news of the discovery and U.S. Treasury prices gaining in Asia on safe-haven dealing after the poison rekindled worries about indiscriminate attacks on U.S. institutions.
"The ricin story is definitely helping Treasuries at a time when the dollar is suffering a bit but ... no one is going to want to overdo their reaction to this news," said a trader in Helsinki.
In early trading, the euro had stormed one percent higher on the day to $1.25 to the dollar. It hit a record peak just below $1.29 in January.
"The ricin and the (U.S.) budget announcement got the euro/dollar moving higher. ... The dollar was due another move lower and this was the straw that broke the camel's back," said Aziz McMahon, currency strategist at ABN AMRO.
The White House released its economic forecasts on Monday and expected a budget deficit at $521 billion in fiscal year 2004.
The dollar slid to 105.32 yen, its lowest in three years but only slightly down from Monday's closing levels.
The U.S. currency fell one percent on the Swiss franc and three-quarters of a percent against the British pound.
SENATE OFFICE BUILDINGS CLOSED
Early on Tuesday, Frist's office announced that the Senate will be in session as scheduled with a 9:45 a.m. starting time.
The three U.S. Senate office buildings, the Hart, Dirksen and Russell buildings, will be closed while all unopened mail is collected and removed. The Capitol will be open, but all tours have been canceled, said Bob Stevenson, a spokesman for Frist.
A news conference is scheduled for 5 p.m. to discuss further steps, Stevenson said.
Gainer said the U.S. Capitol Police department was notified by a postal worker in the Dirksen office building shortly after 3 p.m. of a suspicious white powder in a mailroom. He said it was not immediately clear what package or what letter may have held the powder.
Ricin is a poison derived from the pulp left over when castor beans are processed to make castor oil. There is no antidote for ricin, which can kill within 36 to 72 hours of exposure to significant amounts, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites).
A vial of ricin was delivered to a postal distribution center in Greenville, South Carolina on Oct. 15 in an envelope with a letter threatening to widely release the deadly poison unless new rules for commercial truck drivers were changed. U.S. authorities in January offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever sent the toxin.
In 2001, Capitol Hill was one target in a series of anthrax attacks that killed at least five people on the East Coast, including two Washington postal workers.
Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to the Washington offices of two senators and to news media offices in New York and Florida.
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20040202/mdf463253.jpg
U.S. Capitol police dressed in biochemical hazard gear make their way into an elevator at the Dirksen Senate Building in Washington, February 2, 2004. The powder found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's mail room tested positive for ricin in a field examination, CNN reported, citing a Department of Homeland Security official. Ricin is a deadly toxin derived from castor beans.
Hope they find the bastards who did this.
WASHINGTON (*******) - A suspicious white powder found in a Senate office building on Monday tested positive for the deadly poison ricin, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrence Gainer said.
Several preliminary tests confirmed that the substance discovered in a mail handling room was ricin and results of more extensive tests conducted in a laboratory confirmed the earlier findings, Gainer said late on Monday.
"Two of those three tests do indicate that it is ricin. So we have had several confirmations that it is ricin," Gainer said.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a physician, joined Gainer at the news conference and stressed that no one had been injured.
"There is no cause for alarm," Frist said.
He said that the powder that was found could theoretically have been inhaled but there was no evidence of that by any of the people who had been in the office or on the floor where the substance was found.
FINANCIAL RIPPLES
The discovery caused ripples on world financial markets, with the euro gaining overnight against the dollar after news of the discovery and U.S. Treasury prices gaining in Asia on safe-haven dealing after the poison rekindled worries about indiscriminate attacks on U.S. institutions.
"The ricin story is definitely helping Treasuries at a time when the dollar is suffering a bit but ... no one is going to want to overdo their reaction to this news," said a trader in Helsinki.
In early trading, the euro had stormed one percent higher on the day to $1.25 to the dollar. It hit a record peak just below $1.29 in January.
"The ricin and the (U.S.) budget announcement got the euro/dollar moving higher. ... The dollar was due another move lower and this was the straw that broke the camel's back," said Aziz McMahon, currency strategist at ABN AMRO.
The White House released its economic forecasts on Monday and expected a budget deficit at $521 billion in fiscal year 2004.
The dollar slid to 105.32 yen, its lowest in three years but only slightly down from Monday's closing levels.
The U.S. currency fell one percent on the Swiss franc and three-quarters of a percent against the British pound.
SENATE OFFICE BUILDINGS CLOSED
Early on Tuesday, Frist's office announced that the Senate will be in session as scheduled with a 9:45 a.m. starting time.
The three U.S. Senate office buildings, the Hart, Dirksen and Russell buildings, will be closed while all unopened mail is collected and removed. The Capitol will be open, but all tours have been canceled, said Bob Stevenson, a spokesman for Frist.
A news conference is scheduled for 5 p.m. to discuss further steps, Stevenson said.
Gainer said the U.S. Capitol Police department was notified by a postal worker in the Dirksen office building shortly after 3 p.m. of a suspicious white powder in a mailroom. He said it was not immediately clear what package or what letter may have held the powder.
Ricin is a poison derived from the pulp left over when castor beans are processed to make castor oil. There is no antidote for ricin, which can kill within 36 to 72 hours of exposure to significant amounts, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites).
A vial of ricin was delivered to a postal distribution center in Greenville, South Carolina on Oct. 15 in an envelope with a letter threatening to widely release the deadly poison unless new rules for commercial truck drivers were changed. U.S. authorities in January offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever sent the toxin.
In 2001, Capitol Hill was one target in a series of anthrax attacks that killed at least five people on the East Coast, including two Washington postal workers.
Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to the Washington offices of two senators and to news media offices in New York and Florida.
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20040202/mdf463253.jpg
U.S. Capitol police dressed in biochemical hazard gear make their way into an elevator at the Dirksen Senate Building in Washington, February 2, 2004. The powder found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's mail room tested positive for ricin in a field examination, CNN reported, citing a Department of Homeland Security official. Ricin is a deadly toxin derived from castor beans.
Hope they find the bastards who did this.